Thailand – World Heritage Sites

Thailand is well famous for it’s beautiful idyllic beach paradise islands but if you’ve seen that and done it what more is there in a developed country like this.

We have some beautiful Heritage Sites devoted to Buddhism, Ancient Temples or Wats as they are called in the Thai language of Unesco World Heritage standard although those at Ayutthaya were close to being struck off the list a number of years ago due to the rapid development of the city encroaching on the locations of several iconic temples and basically swallowing them up!

Buddha Head in Tree Roots

This must be one of the more famous Buddhist relics within Thailand known to the outside world as Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya. Nobody really knows how long this stone carved Buddha Head has been entombed as it were amongst the tree roots of an ancient banyan but it’s obviously a very long time indeed!

They do know that this temple was built in the 14th century and later reduced to ruins by the invading Burmese army in 1767 which attempted to over run Thailand. Still nobody is quite sure how the Buddha head got there, many theories do exist but no concrete evidence!

Reclining Buddha at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, Ayutthaya

Another interesting Wat or Temple in the Ancient Capital of Thailand is that of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon. It’s pretty immense as far as ancient temples go and was built in 1598 by one of Ayutthayas greatest Kings, King Nareusan the Great. Ayutthaya itself was founded as early as 1350 and became the second capital of Siam after Sukhothai which I’ll get onto later. Ayutthaya was said to be the largest city in the world by 1700 with a million inhabitants. Today it is almost linked to Bangkok being but a couple of hours drive away and it is very modern. A good way to see the temples as they are fairly spread out in this vast city is by bicycle.

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

You can stumble across all sorts of temple ruins, Stupas, Chedis, seated Buddhas and Pagodas etc as you thread your way through the bustling traffic and onto more quaint back roads in the search of Ayutthayas Ancient Heritage.

Ancient Thailand Relics

Banyan Roots with Shrunken Buddha Head

Sukhothai in the lower part of northern Thailand is another Unesco World Heritage Site and much smaller than Ayutthaya with a more relaxed feel to it. Population is just over 35,000 and it’s 427 km’s north of Bangkok. During the 13 century A.D. Sukhothai was the capital of Siam and to this day Sukhothai Historical Park is a sizeable area littered with numerous sites of historical interest.

One of the many ancient temples at Sukhothai Historical Park

Modern Sukhothai is the commercial area 12 kms from Sukhothai Historical Park or old city. If you happen to visit you can either choose to stay in the modern city or the old city which would put the Historical Park right on your door step so to speak.

Ancient Buddha at Sukhothai

Asian Lotus (Water Lily)

Veering away from the sacred sites Thailand is synonymous with good food whether that’s from a decent Thai restaurant or street food you can’t really go wrong in Thailand.

Thai Food

Also well known for buddhist monks having such a wealth of Buddhist history and tradition, it is still quite common to see in the early morning in bigger cities Buddhist monks young and old walking in a line from business to business collecting alms.

Thai Buddhist Monk in Bangkok

Bangkok Graffiti

And to the heady world of Bangkok which has been covered so much everywhere else that I don’t think I need bother to wax lyrical about it. Just a few images should suffice.

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